Thousands of Mexican women trafficked for prostitution

In the second most profitable crime in Mexico, thousands of women are forced into prostitution and trafficked across Mexican borders to make some men very rich.

Transcript

TONY JONES, PRESENTER: It's one of the most profitable crimes in Mexico, second only to the violent drug trade.

Each year thousands of women are forced into prostitution and trafficked across Mexican borders.

It's a business where some men get very rich at the expense of vulnerable young women and authorities are struggling to crack down on this illegal trade.

Alexandra Fisher filmed this report from Mexico City.

ALEXANDRA FISHER, REPORTER: We are entering a part of Mexico City where not even a police commander is safe. The commander tells me to keep my camera hidden. Powerful traffickers control this area.

MAN: So if all these men are making line for the prostitutes. I don't know if you see those three girls that were back there.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: It's here that a sinister trade is flourishing, many of the girls victims of human trafficking.

'ISABELLE' (voiceover translation): I will have to make around $300 in the day and $400 a night. If I didn't earn that, he beat me and hurt my sons and family.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: After escaping, 'Isabelle' - not her real name - fears the man who forced her into sexual slavery will find her and kill her. I met her in a women's refuge after what she describes as four years of hell.

'ISABELLE' (voiceover translation): I would work all day and night in Mexico City and he would only let me rest for two hours.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: Police commander Carolina Hernandez has spent 27 years in the force. She says many sex trafficking victims find themselves lured into romantic relationships before being exploited within Mexico or sent abroad.

CAROLINA HERNANDEZ, POLICE COMMANDER (voiceover translation): Well, they make them fall in love with them in their hometowns, saying they're going to marry them, that they'll be happy in another city and they'll be able to send money to their families. And if they sometimes don't agree, they get kidnapped.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: Isabelle was 19 when the man she was dating snatched her from her hometown in the country's north.

'ISABELLE' (voiceover translation): I was thinking I never see my family. I didn't know the guy for long. In the car, I thought they were going to rape me, kill me and throw me over a cliff.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: Isabelle says she was taken to the capital then told to sell herself on the streets. At first she refused.

'ISABELLE' (voiceover translation): When he start beating me, it was disgusting. I ask him, "Why are you beating me?" And he say, "I brought you here to prostitute yourself, not because of your beautiful body and face."

BENNY YU, REFUGE MANAGER: You can't make a person an object. There's so much more than that. They are worth so much more.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: American national Benny Yu runs a shelter, The Well, for sex trafficking survivors in Mexico still.

BENNY YU: We have to ask ourselves a question and we start asking it pretty early on: if we rescue these girls, where would they go? Until we started looking into it - and there weren't really any homes that were here in the city - yet this city has - was considered the largest prostitution district in Latin America.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: The Mexican government recently stepped up efforts to crack down on the crime, introducing harsher penalties for offenders, including prison sentences of up to 40 years.

CAMILA BAUTISTA REBOLLAR, ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE voiceover translation): It's a great tool given by the Congress which the people on the frontline can use against the traffickers.

In its most recent global trafficking report, the US State Department identified corruption among Mexican officials as a key factor hampering prosecutions.

BENNY YU: I think I can just put it really easily and very simply: we have two girls from - that are with us at The Well. The individual that was exploiting them right before they arrived to The Well was a police officer. And they were 16 and 17-year-old girls. That's - I mean, if you want to say corrupt, that's - I mean, that's pretty much as corrupt as you can get.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: Ismail Ravera runs 60 per cent of the nightclubs in the country. While prostitution is legal in Mexico, he believes the Government needs to do more to stop women being forced to work.

ISMAIL RAVERA, NIGHTCLUB OWNER (voiceover translation): To end the problem, it is necessary to have government-regulated tolerance zones, but also from businessmen who can guarantee the operation and security of these people.

CAMILA BAUTISTA REBOLLAR (voiceover translation): We need to make sure we're very well-informed about the way the criminals operate so we can protect the women from falling for false expectations.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: But cracking down on the illegal sex trade is not the only challenge Mexican authorities face. For survivors, the deep scars of sexual servitude take a long time to heal.

BENNY YU: They're dealing with so many other things too at the same time. They're dealing with withdrawal from drugs. They're dealing with some infectious disease that is going through their bodies. They're dealing of course the self-esteem issues.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: (To 'Isabelle') What does she want to do in the future?

TRANSLATOR: She doesn't know.

ALEXANDRA FISHER: What does she like to do?

TRANSLATOR: She doesn't know.

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